News Coverage
DuPont's C8 risks greater than acceptable, feds find
Published March 28, 2003
Federal scientists have found that the DuPont Co. chemical C8 is likely to be adversely affecting women of childbearing age and young girls, according to a draft study.
In a draft risk assessment, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency found that the risks from C8 exposure to both groups are above what the agency considers acceptable.
The draft study was to be published today by InsideEPA, a newsletter that closely monitors the agency.
Thursday, copies of the draft study were distributed by the Environmental Working Group, a Washington, D.C.-based research and advocacy group.
In a prepared statement, EPA officials said that they were finalizing the risk assessment.
"There remains considerable uncertainty regarding potential risks," the statement said.
Agency officials promised that they would "soon announce a series of aggressive steps" to gather additional information "in order to more accurately determine any potential risks ... and to undertake any risk mitigation efforts."
C8 is another name for perfluorooctanoate, and is also known as perfluorooctanoic acid or PFOA. It is part of a family of substances called perfluorinated chemicals.
At its Washington Works plant in Wood County, DuPont has used C8 since 1951 to make polymers that are used in the production of Teflon.
For years, C8 and DuPont's emissions of it have been basically unregulated. But last year, federal officials launched a priority review of the chemical because of growing concerns about human health impacts.
EPA is expected to announce in April whether it will take expedited action to regulate C8 and related chemicals under the Toxic Substances Control Act.
Currently, DuPont is defending itself against a class action suit filed in Wood County Circuit Court by plant neighbors who say that C8 has tainted their water supplies.
In its article on the risk assessment, InsideEPA reported that the issue has "captured the attention of EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman because exposure across the U.S. population is considered widespread and the chemicals are associated with adverse developmental and reproductive impacts."
According to the draft study, women of childbearing age have a "margin of exposure," or MOE, between 66 and 80 and children MOEs of 66 to 75, when compared with equivalent levels in the blood of female rats. MOEs indicate significant risk when they are below 100 and some subjects sampled in the research cited have MOEs as low as 7, the draft study says.
A DuPont spokesman told InsideEPA that the company still believes that C8 is "not a developmental or reproductive toxin."
In a prepared statement Thursday, DuPont said, "there is no evidence or data that demonstrates [C8] causes adverse health effects, including developmental or reproductive effects, in any segment of the human population."
DuPont says that the chemical is essential to its production processes, but InsideEPA said that agency officials "maintain that substitutes are readily available."
Richard Wiles, senior vice president of the Environmental Working Group, said that his organization believes the EPA draft study is a good start.
"They are on the right track, but it's even more toxic than EPA is saying," Wiles said Thursday afternoon.
"This confirms the concerns of the people around Parkesburg that [C8] is more toxic than DuPont says it is," Wiles said. "EPA has confirmed that DuPont is wrong."